PlumbingBossPro Blog — Plumbing Software

Estimates With Online Approval: From Plumbing Quote to Scheduled Job

A plumbing estimate written on a carbon pad has a short life. The customer puts it on the fridge, says they will think about it, and three weeks later nobody remembers the number. Meanwhile, the office has no idea which quotes are still open. Estimates in plumbing software fix both problems: the customer can say yes with one tap, and the office can see every quote that is waiting.

Where Estimates Fit

Estimates are one of the things customers can respond to without calling, much like the features in The Customer App: What Plumbing Customers See, Request and Pay.

Most plumbing estimates come from one of three places: a service call that turned up a bigger job, an inspection that came back “Repair recommended,” or a customer who called asking for a price before booking. In all three cases, the estimate is attached to the customer and the address, so it stays with the house.

Built From Your Own Service List

In PlumbingBossPro, estimates are built from a service list you set up with your own prices. A plumbing shop's list might include:

• Service call
• Drain cleaning, main line and hydro-jetting
• Camera inspection
• Faucet, toilet and disposal work
• Leak repair
• Water heater replacement and tankless install
• PRV
• Softener
• Backflow

Whatever you set up is what shows up. A shop might list a $189 drain cleaning or a $129 water heater flush. Picking items from a list keeps prices consistent between the owner and the office, and keeps estimates fast to build.

There is no supplier catalog or flat-rate price book built in. Your list is your list.

That keeps things simple for a small shop. You set up the twenty or thirty services you actually sell, with the prices you actually charge, and adjust them when your costs change. Name items the way a homeowner would understand them. “Water heater replacement, 50 gal gas” reads better on a customer's phone than an internal code, and it reads better on the invoice that follows.

Equipment Details on the Estimate

Plumbing estimates often involve equipment, and the details matter. For a water heater replacement, the estimate can include the new unit's details: type, fuel, size, brand and model.

When the customer approves, those details carry onto the job. The tech who does the install sees the new unit on the job card, and once the job is completed, the house record shows the new equipment. Nobody retypes the model number three times. For how equipment works on the house, see Equipment Saved on the House: Water Heaters, Softeners, Pumps and Shut-Offs in Plumbing Software.

Online Approval

The customer gets the estimate and can approve it online. No printing, no signing, no scanning, no “I'll call you back.”

The approved estimate becomes the scheduled job. It goes on the Waiting List with the right services, prices and equipment details already on it. The office assigns it to a van and a day, and it shows up on the tech's phone like any other job.

This matters most for the jobs that can wait. A burst pipe gets fixed today regardless. A water heater that is getting old, a softener that needs replacing, a main line that needs jetting before it backs up — those are the jobs that customers put off. Making yes easy is how more of them get done.

Follow-Ups and Templates

Two more tools help estimates turn into work:

• Estimate follow-up emails. An open estimate gets a follow-up email, so a quote does not die quietly in someone's inbox.
• Estimate templates. For jobs you quote all the time, like a 50-gallon gas water heater replacement or a yearly maintenance plan, a template saves building the same estimate from scratch.

Templates also help keep quotes consistent when more than one person writes them. The owner and the office manager send the same price for the same job.

Practical Tips for Better Estimates

• Send it the same day. A quote sent while the plumber is still in the driveway gets more attention than one sent next week.
• Attach the reason. If an inspection found a problem, mention it. “Your T&P valve was weeping and the heater is 14 years old.”
• Give options when they fit. Repair versus replace, tank versus tankless. Let the customer choose.
• Keep the service list clean. Clear names and current prices make every estimate easier to read.

The same service list drives your invoices, so prices on the estimate and on the final bill line up. To see how estimates fit with scheduling, the tech app and billing, visit the PlumbingBossPro plumbing software page.